Re: vCard RDF compromises

Bruce,

Bruce D'Arcus wrote:
>
> Hmm ... so what would it take to declare a "definitive conclusion"?

I'd be happy with an update of the draft at 
http://www.w3.org/2006/vcard/ns . :)

>
> I've recently been corrected elsewhere on the casual use of the term
> "red herring." The term means a deliberate attempt at obfuscation by
> changing the subject.

I certainly didn't intend to imply any deliberate attempts at changing 
the subject. I meant only that I consider FOAF distracting but perhaps 
not deserving of much attention. (I did check 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring before writing my earlier 
email, and picked up on "diversion" and "distraction" but missed any 
sense of deliberateness. I'm not sure how much the "deliberate" part 
comes through in common usage.)

>
> My question is quite genuine. However problematic FOAF's name model
> is, it's a widely deployed vocabulary, and we need to have some
> reconciliation of this issue if the RDF world is going to have some
> coherent story of how to represent agents.

It would be nice to have everyone reconcile things, but practically I 
doubt that this will happen any time soon. It's not that there's a lot 
of resistance---it's just that there are a lot of players but no 
engagement. And however widely deploy the FOAF vocabulary in general is, 
the name-related elements are not consistently deployed. This part is 
just a mess, and there's no resolution on the horizon. Read everything 
at http://rdfweb.org/topic/NameVocabIssue . I say just ignore it.


>
> We might well say it's not an issue for vCard, but it is an issue for
> this list and this community.

And, unless someone from FOAF actually want to respond to us, I think 
the best thing for this list and this community is to get some closure 
on a consistent RDF vCard spec and start implementing it. :)

I am always happy and willing to update the RDF vCard spec if asked, but 
I want to be clear that I'm here to contribute where needed, not trying 
to take over.

Best,

Garret

Received on Tuesday, 10 July 2007 15:22:09 UTC